2007_09_12.Notes - Notes Christian Theology 32 The process...

NotesChristian Theology 32September 12, 2007The process he is taking us through is part of what he it trying to teach us.Theologians typically do their work by downloading the information to the listener. He is trying a different way: he believes one needs to play, and he’s trying to draw us in.Inside Israel’s story, he’s been invited in by grace. It’s the story of Jesus, a Jew.Q: We can never really be an Israelite. Is that what he means?A: Yeah…. I know you thought that. How do you think Ruth would answer what you just asked? “Your people are my people. Your God is my God.” And she left stuff behind. The process of entering in, is also the process of going behind.As YHWH sets apart the people Israel, YHWH’s love for the world becomes funneled and intensified for these people. One outcome is that when the nations look at Israel, they come to hate Israel. Because it is the intensification of God’s love as well as the intensification of the world’s hate for God, the world’s desire to be God itself. A magnifying glass of God’s interactions with the world. The world lashes out by going against Israel.When Jesus comes, he opens Israel to the other nations, which is an openness that was there from the beginning, but had closed down for a long time.We have habits of “ethnic thought”. The Christian claim becomes a stone of stumbling and a cause of offense. Think the Christian thought and have it be strange to us; it’s become too domestic to us.Q: “What makes Israel Israel?” A: Don’t conflate today’s Israel with the historic people Israel. Israel is the people who always has their identity ahead of them.Ethnic thinking makes you think that you’ve already finished and accomplished your ethnic identity. “I’m white”, “I’m black”…. Ethnic thinking tells us our ethnic identity is accomplished.

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